Fuel Your Hustle with Amy Kuretsky

Emily Thompson 0:00
Hello and welcome to being boss episode number 77. This episode is brought to you by fresh books cloud accounting.

Being balls and work and life is being in it.

Kathleen Shannon 0:16
It's being who we are doing the work, breaking some rules. And even though we each

Emily Thompson 0:22
have to do it on our own, being boss is knowing we're in it together.

Kathleen Shannon 0:27
Alright, today we have a very special guest, Amy kreski, who is our friend and fellow boss, me as a health coach and acupuncturist and herbalist, a cyclist and a paleo foodie, she coaches creative entrepreneurs to be their healthiest selves. And what she's really known for is helping type a people Hullo find their own personal brand of balance in order to stay sane and healthy in their business. So Amy loves working with creative professionals who struggle with anxiety and that pit in your gut feeling that stems from the weight of deadlines and expectations. We all need an Amy in our corner. We're obsessed with her periscopes where she shares all of her advice and we're so glad to have her here on being boss. Hey guys, I want to pop in and say that most creative entrepreneurs, freelancers and small business owners did not get into their business to necessarily be spending their days on the administrative stuff like invoicing and tracking expenses and keeping the books clean. So this is why fresh books cloud accounting is so awesome for us service based creatives, you can create professional looking invoices in seconds, you can track your expenses from anywhere. And one of my favorite features about freshbooks is being able to automatically import your expenses from your bank. You can track your time even though freshbooks definitely promotes charging for your expertise so you can get paid more. And you can accept payments so easily you can accept credit cards, including Visa, MasterCard, American Express, the deposits are super fast into your bank account. And you can even auto charge client credit cards if you have recurring expenses. Another really great thing about freshbooks is the reporting. You can know your financial numbers at a glance which makes it so easy to know where you're tracking in your business. Try fresh books for free by going to freshbooks comm slash being boss and enter being boss in the How did you hear about us section you can join join millions of creatives, small business owners, freelancers and even side hustlers in getting professional and getting organized. Amy, hello, hey, joining us.

Amy Kuretsky 2:44
Thanks for having me.

Kathleen Shannon 2:45
We're excited to have you on the show. So we first met you at being boss Miami. No, no, I'm sorry, being boss in New Orleans. We just had Miami I keep saying being boss Miami to boss vacations and you went on both of them. But after being boss, Nola, like I kind of became obsessed with everything that you have to offer, and have learned so much from you. I'm so excited to have you on the show to talk to our bosses. So welcome to the show. I feel like now I was just giving you two introductions. Oh, thanks. Well, the

Amy Kuretsky 3:19
obsession is mutual. So I'm really glad to be on here too. Thanks for having me.

Emily Thompson 3:23
Well, and I wouldn't, I wouldn't point out really quickly that I remember you from New Orleans because you gave me a rock. So I don't think we really got to like, chat in New Orleans. And then like we're wrapping up last day. And this cute little chick walks up to me and like hands me a crystal and she's like I made this for you. And you weren't you're like Reiki Mojo on this really awesome like orange calcite crystal and gave it to me like before you left. And it was amazing. And I'll tell you like, I held that rock in my hand the entire ride home, like I got home and I was like, it was one of those things like I realized that it was in my hand like later and was a little weirded out by it. But then like, again, mutual obsession, where I loved getting introduced

Amy Kuretsky 4:17
New Orleans was magic. You know, it really was magic in many senses of the word you know, like New Orleans itself is a magical place and the first box vacation was magic and so I felt like there was all this magic together that it had to be kind of brought into the physical world somehow.

Emily Thompson 4:32
Yeah, it did it. It did it.

Kathleen Shannon 4:34
Okay, let's jump in. This is going to be a fun conversation. But we don't even have an agenda for this episode, which, dear listeners we usually have a little bit of an agenda but we all feel like Amy is a friend here so it's really going to be kind of like we're hanging out having coffee or wine. We're not having wine because Amy and I are doing a 21 day sugar detox right now.

Emily Thompson 4:57
We are are you are you both doing it? Hi.

Amy Kuretsky 5:00
I've got my glass of kombucha right here.

Kathleen Shannon 5:03
I have to admit, I'm kind of faking it. But I'll tell you more about that in a minute. So

Amy Kuretsky 5:08
I know I watched your periscope this morning.

Kathleen Shannon 5:11
Okay, I'm in denial. Okay. So first I want to talk about you help creative entrepreneurs, fuel, their health and their hustle. So I actually want to define and really figure out. One, I think that there's a lot of controversy around the word hustle. So I think that this is a good opportunity for us as bosses to define what hustle means in the being boss role, because I think that we're all on the same page there. And then I want to talk a little bit to about what does health look like for creative entrepreneurs? So first hustle, what does that mean?

Amy Kuretsky 5:47
Well, I think you could think about it in almost two different ways you could think about it in this overly like romanticized way where people, I feel like a couple years ago, when the word hustle really, like started gaining traction, and people were proclaiming how hard they were hustling and like, everything that they were doing to hustle so you know, intensely and they were giving up their sleep, and they were working through lunch and this and that. And it was like, there was this romanticism of the hustle. Which, yes, we know that we all have to do the work. And you can hustle and do the work. But it doesn't have to be debilitating to your body to do so. So I mean, the hustle is really doing the work. But that is a big gradation right there, you know, you can do the work and have it be and have it be energizing to your mind, body and soul. But you can also do the work and it can, you know, end up taking you to the hospital with like, terrible. You know, we've heard of different bosses out there, I've heard a couple stories of bosses that like work their asses off the first year or so in business, and then they ended up like with adrenal fatigue or with mano, or this or that. And so there's lots of different ways to hustle.

Kathleen Shannon 7:02
I think I just got called out No, no,

Amy Kuretsky 7:04
I wasn't talking about. But it did make me think about how both you and Sarah got mono this year.

Kathleen Shannon 7:10
Yeah, I feel like I'm sick all the time. But I blame Fox and being in daycare.

Amy Kuretsky 7:16
Yeah, but our immune systems also will strengthen. Naturally, like, I don't know how to explain it very well. But your immune system is your defensive layer of energy. And so if we are hustling ourselves into the ground, our defenses are kind of falling around us. And so we're going to be prone to more attacks of viruses, bacteria, etc. Energy,

Kathleen Shannon 7:43
what's that called? In acupuncture? Wait, wait, wait T. Good job. See, I've been going to acupuncture since hanging out with you. Okay, so then let's also talk a little bit about how would you define health for creative entrepreneur? Or really, you know, maybe just for yourself from your own experience? Because I think that all of us define health in a little different ways. But how would you having worked with lots of people, how would you kind of define how we're our healthiest selves?

Amy Kuretsky 8:12
Well, I think we are as creative entrepreneurs, we are our healthiest selves, when we are able to create the work that we want to create and not feel like we're dying while doing it, basically, you know, feel like we're creating something and it is actually giving us more energy than taking away our energy. So myself, I, I struggled with health issues for a really long time, I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease 12 years ago, now called Crohn's disease, it's an autoimmune disease of the gut. Basically, anytime anyone is diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, it means that it is like lifelong autoimmune diseases never go away, you can just manage them. And I was able through Chinese medicine and through other natural medicine and diet and lifestyle changes to bring my Crohn's disease into remission. But then also build a business at the same time. So for me, it was extremely important from the get go to both build a sustainable business, but also not let that business impair what I had gained. So which was so important for me over the last couple years.

Emily Thompson 9:22
What I believe it's such a huge, such a huge like point to make in terms of like what the hustle is, and this idea of like, a lot of times whenever people are accused of glorifying the hustle, they're like they're being a use of glorifying this like work in business and not in life. Where you know, you're focusing and hustling out like one part of your being but not taking care of the entirety of who you are and what you do. And I feel like I've looked that's the differentiation that we tried. We tried to make you're at being boss, like hustling is not like staying up and hustling out client work. And not eating and not taking care of yourself. Like that's not hustling. That's like sad that is like, that is not how you need to get shit done hustling is hustling out both your business but your life as well like taking care of yourself while you're doing the work.

Amy Kuretsky 10:15
And hustling is also being intentional and putting energy and focus behind something like for me to go from being so sick that I was, I only weighed like 90 pounds, which granted, I'm not a very big person, but I looked like death. Like I was so sick. I was at the Mayo Clinic for a week trying to figure out what was wrong. And then I had to be on all these crazy medications. And when I say like that, I brought myself to the health that I am now where I am totally pharmaceutical free. I am the healthiest I've ever been in my entire life. I hustled to get there, like I worked hard, and I was intentional about it. But it wasn't the type of hustle that I threw everything else out the door to only do that, it's just that I was intentional and focused on it.

Kathleen Shannon 11:03
Yeah, I love this idea that health is kind of life giving or that whenever your hustle is healthy, it is life giving rather than life draining. And I think that there's this idea that you have to pick between. I mean, I've seen this a lot, even being a new mom like that you

Amy Kuretsky 11:22
have to pick something to prioritize in order to not be spread thin. So I even told people that I need to slow down in my business to be a better mom, or that I have to pick my health as a priority. Like, I need to just really make Sleep my full time job since my baby doesn't like sleeping at night. But the thing is, is that my hustle is life giving. And I feel like I probably would have died without it. Like I think that maybe. And I know that that's really dramatic. But I'm being very serious, because I have suffered from mental health issues after having a baby, that if I had not had my hustle if I had not had my work, um, I would have, I would have been less healthy in some ways. And that makes me think of there's all this talk of self care recently, like that's big in the creative entrepreneur world. And in general self care. And self care is so important. But I think that it's really important to define what self care is for you. Because, you know, for some people meditation and eating healthy and stuff is self care. And I have to say that for me, I know that mindfulness or meditation, eating healthy and moving my body or healthcare, they are not self care, they are things that I have to have every day to have my baseline of health. And then for me the things that I do for self care, they're more of that like soul work. So the creativity, the writing, the hanging out with friends, like at the boss vacations like that is that is self care, because that is soul work right there.

Emily Thompson 12:50
Yeah, I love I remember hearing you talk about this differentiation between health care and self care. And I think I think that is huge, because I do feel like, you know, as we're like hustling out our life in business, like it's really easy to think that like brushing your teeth is self care when taking a moment to brush your damn teeth is like this extra thing that you're doing to like, make yourself better, when that should be baseline. And even like even more important things than brushing your teeth, I think should should be part of that baseline. And I think and that's really just where like having some really good habits come into play in structuring your day based on the things that are most important for you to get shit done. And like, there's basic health, there's getting your shit done, and their self care too. I love that I love that you have created this differentiation between health care and like the baseline of what you need to do to take care of yourself. And self care being the sort of like, additional life giving work that you do that makes the work that you do

Amy Kuretsky 13:55
easier. And for so many of us our hustle, but really like our work, you know, we say our hustle, but really it's like our writing or our drawing or graphic design or this or that whatever we're doing like that is our self care sometimes, because when you are in flow doing the thing that you do, it's like time stops like Kathleen, you've talked about how you can manipulate you know, the idea of manipulating time and stuff. And I feel like that is that self care like when you are in flow time really does expand.

Kathleen Shannon 14:26
Yes. Okay, I want to talk a little bit about well, actually, I want to go I want to rewind a little bit Amy and get into you had all these health issues you heal yourself. What made you decide I want to do the behind the scenes of your own creative entrepreneurial journey and becoming an acupuncturist. And yeah, so tell us a little bit about that.

Amy Kuretsky 14:50
So, something like a mantra that I've had recently in my life is I trust my life and it's interesting cuz sometimes people will ask me this exact question and I have to go back and think once like, I don't actually know like how I got from step a to where I am now. But I guess I just trusted the process without being intentional about trusting the process, it was just happening. And now when I think back on it, it's like, Okay, this is all worked out, to lead me to where I am today, which I'm very happy about. And so I do I trust my life. Because if you The funny thing is, is like when I went to school to become an acupuncturist, which is no easy feat, it is three years year round, you get a master's degree, it's 3000 hours of training, it is like six figures of debt, it's a big deal. I had only had acupuncture twice, before I started that program.

Kathleen Shannon 15:42
So I was actually talking to another podcaster about this yesterday, I was being interviewed. And I think that there is this thing about being a creative entrepreneur and what what differentiates a creative entrepreneur from an entrepreneur might be that we follow our curiosity, and we follow our interests. And then we find ways to make money on that without really knowing how we're going to connect all the dots of how all of our experiences add up into something that we can sell and feel totally aligned with, and really blend who we are with what we do. So do you think that that was true for you that you were just following your curiosity and then unfolded into having an acupuncture practice?

Amy Kuretsky 16:23
Yes, my neck is gonna hurt afterwards. Because I'm nodding so much to everything that you're saying. I'm like, Yes, yes. Because like I, my, my transition of bringing, basically, I had to become my own health advocate when I was really sick. So I was 21 years old. At the time, when I got sick, like, I was pretty young, I went to the doctors, and they were basically like, Okay, you've got this thing here, you're gonna be on this medicine for the rest of your life. And I'm like, Well, I'm only 21. Like, come on. And I was like, well, should I not be eating like hamburgers and french fries and stuff? And like, Oh, no, it doesn't matter what you eat. I'm like, really, because my guts are inflamed. So you would think that what I put in them makes a difference. And so basically, I from a very like, early age, I had to be my own advocate really stand up for myself and, and lead my own direction, which I think is really common amongst creative entrepreneurs is that we are leaders of our own life. And we like really find our true north and go towards it. And so even though it like took me all these weird twists and turns and everything, like there is a reason and I'm trusting it, I'm trusting the process. Okay, I

Kathleen Shannon 17:32
want to talk a little bit about the 21 day sugar detox, so we have the being boss clubhouse. And for our listeners who do not know about that, if you go to being boss Club, which is our website, where we release articles every single day, and minisodes and everything else, we have a clubhouse and you can find that at being boss club slash clubhouse, I promise that this isn't just a pitch for this, the story is going somewhere. And you are in that clubhouse. And we were in there talking about health and just general issues. And we decided to have you on a q&a call just for our clubhouse members where we started talking about some of the things that we're talking about today. But we I think we dove a little bit deeper and on on certain questions that are specific members had for their health, health and stuff like that. So what came out of that q&a is this request for a for you to lead us through a 21 day sugar detox, which is a program designed by I always get her name wrong,

Amy Kuretsky 18:35
Dan sanfilippo.

Kathleen Shannon 18:37
Diane sanfilippo, who wrote practical paleo and she wrote the 21 day sugar detox. And it's really interesting for those of you who are familiar with the whole 30 and we've had Melissa Hartwig on the show, it's kind of like that, but it's specifically aimed towards helping us break our relationship with sugar, or at least our addiction with sugar. So we just started this sugar detox right now it is may six, and we all started it together on May 2. And it is no joke. So let's talk about that a little bit.

Amy Kuretsky 19:10
Yeah, what do you want to know?

Kathleen Shannon 19:11
Well, I want to know why why should we quit sugar? Okay, so

Amy Kuretsky 19:16
that's a really big question. And I could talk about that for a long time, but I won't. But instead, I can definitely say that in my acupuncture practice here in Minneapolis, over 95% of the issues that my patients are coming in with relate to inflammation and sugar is inflammatory. So whether it's like pain that somebody has, or an autoimmune disease, or even anxiety and depression, which can be inflammation in the brain, these are all inflammatory processes. And there are a lot of ways that we can have inflammation in our body, but I have to say that there is a crazy amount of sugar that we're all getting in our diets on a regular basis and we don't realize how much we're getting. And we don't realize how inflammatory that is to our bodies. so that's one really basic reason why i think it's important and why i love helping people get off of sugar

Kathleen Shannon 20:07
you know as i begin to nerd out with all my health friends and it's definitely a huge interest of mine i'm starting to feel like inflammation is the root of all evil

Unknown Speaker 20:17
i would agree with that

Kathleen Shannon 20:20
like i feel like every single issue that people have in their bodies scene tends to come back to inflammation or

Amy Kuretsky 20:27
isn't it funny that like in okay emily you're gonna like this because you love like symbolism and stuff like that but if you think of inflammation it's red it's fiery it's hot like it's very you know health sort of like red fiery hot like double stuff so you can you can make these really interesting like connections between everything so inflammation is definitely the root of all evil in the body

Kathleen Shannon 20:51
literally so we're doing this 21 day sugar detox and like day one and two i was like oh i got this i don't even know what you all are complaining about by day three i feel like a crackhead because i walked by an open bar of chocolate that my husband and baby had been snacking on and granted this 85% dark chocolate like it's not the most sugary thing you could eat it's not terrible but i felt a physical reaction come up through my gut up into my chest and just like i got all red and hot and flush and it made me realize let's see it's not even a sugar thing but at least kind of an addiction or craving and for me it felt more habitual than then like well obviously it a physical response but it felt more of like a habitual because i have a piece of chocolate every day and it got me not feeling bad about my sugar craving but rather thinking about habits and the habits that we create and it made me wonder how much time you spend thinking me about the habits that we create for ourselves good and bad

Amy Kuretsky 22:00
actually i'm reading gretchen rubens book right now better than before the one that's all about habit so right now i'm thinking a lot about it

Unknown Speaker 22:09
but i think that i

Amy Kuretsky 22:13
i've thought a lot about it in the past because working with my health coaching clients i'm working with helping them create healthy habits a lot of the times but for me personally i feel like i don't i haven't had to work super hard on creating healthy habits or at least i'm not conscious of it as much i feel like i'm a questioner like that is my tendency in the four tendencies if you're wondering what tendency you are you can go to her website and take her quiz online

Kathleen Shannon 22:41
but i'm sure we'll link to that in our show notes to at being boss club

Amy Kuretsky 22:46
yeah so i'm a questioner i need to know like the reason behind everything and so i think i've always just done a pretty good job of creating the habits that i need for my body because i since i'm a health professional i have done the research to be like okay well this is gonna help this so automatically okay i'm gonna do that like i don't even have to think about it creating a habit but obviously when i'm working with health coaching patients not all of them are questioners not all of them want to do the research so that's not how it's gonna work for everybody and so there's a lot of different techniques that we use when i'm working with clients and but a lot of it is about thinking of your cues like what is going to trigger something else and also what is your trigger for your unhealthy habits and so like for you walking by that piece of chocolate like what what were those cues you know were you feeling maybe more emotional than normal was your

Unknown Speaker 23:43
blood sugar low you

Amy Kuretsky 23:44
know there's lots of different questions that you could go down the line to see like what is maybe triggering it for you

Kathleen Shannon 23:51
i want that chocolate

Emily Thompson 23:53
sugar demons i wanted to get this out to you

Amy Kuretsky 23:59
well what what tendency are you kathleen

Kathleen Shannon 24:03
so i'm typically an upholder interesting i know

Emily Thompson 24:08
yeah oh isn't that the damn truth

Kathleen Shannon 24:11
i would think like upholder slash rebel which is why and so okay so i saw this chocolate and then i ended up eating it and i went through like the stages of grief about this whole thing like at first i think that the first few days that i wasn't eating sugar i was kind of in denial about it and like whatever and then i went through anger i was like why am i doing this to myself this is so dumb yolo if i die tomorrow and i haven't had this piece of chocolate i'm gonna be pissed then i went through bargaining like okay i'm just going to eat this piece of chocolate i'm not going to do anything else different or wrong i'm just going to have this piece of chocolate well then it went into and i'm going to have this donut for my birthday and i'm going have this glass of wine but i'm going to do everything else right but you know what's interesting about it because i have to find meaning in everything since making these decisions i will say that i'm going through this 21 day sugar detox and even though i have failed miserably by day three the thing is is that i was so aware of what i was eating and when i was eating it and i felt conscious about the choice and i felt actually in control of it which is why i'm not actually beating myself up too bad about it so i'm curious do you have any thoughts about that amy

Amy Kuretsky 25:36
yeah and i think i think that we're all adults excuse me and we can all make our own choices and what's actually more important than sticking to it you know you'd made your decisions that's fine what's actually more important is now also being as aware as you were before you ate it but being as aware of how your body is reacting to it now because that's going to give you a lot of data

Kathleen Shannon 25:58
and my body loved it my body was like my body and soul and mind and all of it and i think that that's what went into actually making that conscious decision is i could really love that experience and so i don't think i had a like a lot of the negative impact that goes into beating yourself up for eating something that you shouldn't and i'm putting that in air quotes shouldn't have but what's really cool about it is just as conscious as i was to have that glass of wine or to eat that doughnut today i've been just as conscious as to saying you know what yesterday i had those things but that doesn't mean i have to eat those things in this next meal and so i've gone back to 21 day sugar detox parameters in the way that i've eaten today so i think i know myself well enough that i could kind of fall off the wagon for a minute and then get right back on

Amy Kuretsky 26:51
yeah when i did my very first sugar detox one of the things that i learned the most was that when i eat more sugar i get sick more frequently so when i'm doing a sugar detox for a good like month or so after i finished the detox i will notice that when i have something extra sweet i will start to get a sore throat not like oh my god i'm getting strips throat sore throat sore throat sorry but like a tickle in my throat or just that like dirty feeling in the back of your throat and so it was something that i noticed and it still happens i haven't this is the first sugar detox i've done in about a year or so so it wasn't happening recently but i know that once i finish this i will be more sensitive to sugar again

Emily Thompson 27:32
yeah i've never done a sugar detox but i always find that whenever i do a whole 30 which is basically just a big fat sugar detox plus everything else like it whenever i go back to eating just normal quote unquote food like my sinuses like my face gets clogged up whenever i eat certain things or just like general inflammation i become much more sensitive to it and i think that i think that taking some time to like get that in tune with your body i think is really important like it will really open you up to like realizing all kinds of thing that's going on within your body that you probably aren't even noticing i think that that doing that sort of thing is such a powerful way to get like back in do your body

Amy Kuretsky 28:18
and one of the best ways to like be a fucking boss is to be in tune with your body

Emily Thompson 28:22
hey man yeah hi bosses one of my favorite things about doing business online other than making business besties with cool creatives all over the world is being able to quickly and easily share my expertise with people who need what i offer but hosting a workshop or getting paid for a one on one can be a bit of a logistical nightmare ecommerce payment processors web pages the works until now how about having scheduling software that allows people to pay for their sessions right when they book because that's the thing and it's called acuity scheduling yep you heard it right get paid online without needing e commerce to do it without needing to send separate invoices and never again needing to seek out payment after you've already given your time the best part acuity has this feature working for one on ones as well as group classes and workshops getting you paid faster than ever before no matter how you're doing it acuity scheduling for client calendars welcome belem blow them away sign up for a free 60 day trial of scheduling sanity at acuity scheduling.com slash being boss now let's get back at it

Kathleen Shannon 29:43
so let's talk about that what are some tools that help someone be in tune with their body

Amy Kuretsky 29:50
um you can do a couple things i mean meditation is great that basically it takes out all distractions except for your head and your body and so on can be hard for people in the beginning. So I like, I like to redefine the word meditation for my clients that are like scared of meditation, and really say that meditation is anytime that you can really get in flow. So if that means like playing the piano for 20 minutes, that's a meditation for you. Or if it means like drawing in a coloring book, then that's a meditation or going for a walk or riding your bike or like yada, yada, yada all of those things. And then once you feel comfortable doing those things, then you can start to bring it, you know, to be more still and be more still in your body, and really do kind of like a body scan to be in tune with your body. But then also even things like how you were saying, Kathleen, that in the beginning of the sugar detox, you're being really intentional and noticing everything that you were eating, you could keep a food journal, you know, or a time journal about how you're spending your time, you know, there's all these different ways of noticing that it's going to help give you data to be in tune with your body.

Kathleen Shannon 30:57
I love the idea of keeping track of or, you know, tracking metrics around your body. So what you're eating, how you're feeling, how's your digestion, and then really taking note of your productivity, because again, this is all you know, our point of view, here is your health to fuel your hustle. And to take note of Okay, whenever I'm not eating sugar, how does that affect my work? How does that make me a better boss?

Amy Kuretsky 31:26
Yeah, so when I work with clients, one of the very first things I always have them do whether or not their main complaint is digestive related, as I always have them, do a food journal. And it's not just a food journal, it's like food, mood, and poop. So it's like, what you're eating, how you're feeling and how you're pooping. And then I like to add sleep in there too. But you don't really that doesn't have a good rhyming word with poops. So. But I think that one is equally important. And that kind of goes with mood is like if you slept well or not. So because they're all related, you know, they're not, they don't live independently of each other, they all connect, and they're all influencing each other. And so what you're eating is going to influence how you're feeling, how you move is going to influence how you sleep, they all work together. The magic is in the mix,

Kathleen Shannon 32:14
I was just gonna say that I have a friend that is a functional nutritionist. And she's actually had me do the food poo journal. And I thought like, Oh, I got this, I feel like in general, I'm a pretty in tune person. But once I actually put on paper, and you guys, I did this in a spreadsheet through Google. So like, you can do this any sort of way. And it's actually awesome for her too, because she could go into my spreadsheet and ask me certain questions on certain cells in the spreadsheet based on what I had eaten, or what my mood was or how I improved. And you guys, I know that we're talking about poop a lot here, right in this moment. But like for nutritionist is no big deal. Like, I feel like you guys are like, that's like a second language.

Unknown Speaker 32:56
I talk about poop all day long.

Kathleen Shannon 32:59
So anyway, I thought like, Oh, I got this, or I don't need to do this, because I already know what all of this means. But once I actually put it on paper, it was so insightful. So this is something that you all can do right now. basically draw on a piece of paper, start a spreadsheet. But your left hand column will be you know, morning, afternoon, evening, however, you want to dissect the time there. And then you have your columns, there's food, mood, and poop. And basically you're going to write down what you ate, you're going to write down your mood, which could also be how your body feels after you eat something, but also how you feel mentally. And then obviously, your digestion. So it's so cool, you can uncover there.

Amy Kuretsky 33:46
Yeah, and if you do that, and you don't see patterns, because there are patterns that you might not be able to see, but that a licensed nutritionist or a health coach or an acupuncturist or somebody else can look at it. And really, those patterns will stick out like a sore thumb, because they're trained to see them.

Kathleen Shannon 34:04
And you know, what's so cool about that, too, is that if you went to a trained professional and you already had this journal, like think about how much easier you're making their job, and then it's going to cost you probably a little bit less money. Sorry, Amy.

Amy Kuretsky 34:16
I'm not trying to work here. No, like might cost you a little bit. They'd be like my favorite patient.

Kathleen Shannon 34:22
Yeah, exactly.

Emily Thompson 34:23
Well, and the thing that I want to point out here is like food, mood, and poop has nothing about weight and measurement. Totally. These are and there is such a focus on the mood piece. They're like how you're actually feeling while you're doing these things. I feel like so often, and like I feel like we almost take it for granted like we've sort of been we've been creating these habits for ourselves so that we're not like as obsessed with with some of the some of the like, quantitative metrics around getting healthy, that like there's something really powerful about putting away the measuring tools. And just getting back to how you feel when you eat or do things. And then what that actually means for your body in terms of

Amy Kuretsky 35:12
paying for and for your business even like so for me. Like I said, before I have Crohn's disease, I do not have celiac disease, but I do choose to be gluten free, mostly because there's a lot of, there's a lot of data out there that shows that eating gluten, when you have irritable bowel disease or inflammatory bowel disease, that it is negatively impactful for it. And so I choose to not eat gluten, but say I get a little bit here or there. By accident, I don't have the same reactions as someone with celiac. And about a year or so ago, there was a course of about a month that I was ending up getting some gluten here and there. It was like my birthday. And then we were like camping and it was like kind of like what you were saying, Kathleen, like one little thing, and then all of a sudden you like spiral down this hole. And a month goes by and I realize I noticed myself one day in clinic with a patient and I felt like I just wasn't present with her. And I just had this cloud around my head. And I just had total brain fog. And I noticed that it was getting very bad and really bothering me. And so that's when I sat down and looked at what I've been eating and I was like wow, I was getting way more gluten than I thought I was and basically since then I've been super super strict and I've been clear headed as a blue sky.

Emily Thompson 36:27
No gluten for me is one of those things where like sugar, I know I could probably eat less of it. I did just eat a really great time to bar that I loved the time I get eat less sugar. But gluten for me is the is the is the gut killer like that causes so much inflammation in my body that we decided to give that up about, I guess about a year and a half ago now. And like there will be times when I will have a piece of pizza because pizza. But on the whole we don't eat it and like inflammation is gone. The brain fogginess has certainly gotten so much better because that was something that I experienced. And like making adjustments like that based on like recognizing how you feel when you don't eat it. And for me that came from doing whole 30 it was it was getting all of that out of my system and realizing how much better I felt a fifth felt felt by not by not eating those things. And whenever I put gluten back in my body, like waking up in the morning with sincerely swollen fingers and unable to button my pants because I'd eaten some bread.

Amy Kuretsky 37:30
Right? And do you feel like you are less productive during your day then as well?

Emily Thompson 37:35
Yeah, I mean, just whenever I'm bloated, I don't want to do shit.

Amy Kuretsky 37:38
Right? Totally. And it's like, well, Kathleen, the same of what I was saying with Kathleen before about that being able to like kind of warp time and bend time and when you're in flow and time like last forever. But then when you are, you know disjointed and like not vibing very high. And then everything just seems to take so much longer. And so for me when I when my health isn't at its optimal level, everything takes longer and and just not able to be as productive. And I'm a solopreneur I don't even have a VA right now, which is like next thing on my list, get a VA but like, I don't have that option to be sick right now.

Emily Thompson 38:17
Yeah, so taking care of yourself is like, again, like taking care of deliver taking care of your number one employee becomes literally your most important job. Yeah, want to do all of your other jobs, any kind of good. And that productivity piece is really huge. I remember last time I did a whole 30 like I kept a really good journal. And I remember like week, two and a half three, feeling the most productive I had ever been in my entire life. Like I was busting shit out. Like it was nobody's business. And I remember being so like, impressed and amazed and like in all of like, what you can do when you just feel good, and how good you can feel when the only thing that you're doing differently is eating really well.

Kathleen Shannon 39:05
Yeah, I'm so re inspired having this conversation because again, I feel I fell off the wagon a little bit headfirst into a doughnut wasn't gonna cry. Even after two days, and probably Emily, you can attest by looking at how many Asana tasks you get whenever I'm feeling productive, right. Like whenever I'm feeling productive, it creates more work for everyone around me. Yeah, but um, okay, so a couple of things came up. And one is a one question that I had was how do you know whenever you don't feel well, and so for me, I never knew that I was sensitive to gluten at because I was always like, Whatever. I'm not celiacs and I'm not I'm not even going to pretend like I have an issue with gluten because that's really unfair to people who really do have serious issues. But then I did a whole 30. And afterwards, notice how bad I felt whenever I ate refined sugar, particularly refined sugar and gluten, even though again, I'm not allergic. I also, so that was one thing and I think that you address that Emily by really getting strict about what you're eating for a month and really cleaning up your diet. Like once you know your top level of how good you feel, then you can recognize whenever you don't feel

Amy Kuretsky 40:28
well. And also, I want to say that like, think of how common it is in our culture to complain about being tired or complain about this or complain about that or complain about feeling bloated or whatever. And so that's a really good indication that you're not feeling so good. because let me tell you when I'm feeling good, like I'm not complaining at all, because I have nothing to complain about them. And that's something else I'm

Kathleen Shannon 40:51
gonna bring him we've been talking about inflammation and Emily started to touch on it with bloat. But what are some other signs of inflammation?

Amy Kuretsky 40:59
Um, well, so it depends upon where it is in your body. So in the gut, it could be digestive issues like pain or strange formation of your stool, it could be acid reflux, that can be inflammatory joint, so pain, physical joint pain, body pain can be headaches, it could be skin issues, a lot of inflammation shows up on the skin. So people with eczema, psoriasis, even acne, those are all different forms of inflammation.

Kathleen Shannon 41:30
You it's so funny is after a drink wine, I get flushed, I turn red. And I never knew that that was inflammation until my friend who's a nutritionist pointed that out. I always just thought it was like, Oh, it's kind of a funny reaction. I turned red. Whenever I drink wine. I never thought Oh, that heat and that redness is inflammation.

Amy Kuretsky 41:50
Yeah, and it's heat. And in Chinese medicine, we would call that like, well, it kind of burns up your Yin, your Yin being that like cooling, moisturizing, calming aspect of the body. And so when you're burning up your again, your yen is supposed to be at its peak at night. But if you don't have enough of that yet, it's like when a car runs out of cool internet overheats and has this like it's not overheating because it's exploding. It's overheating because it's lacking that cooling nurturing substance. And so that inflammation is the inflammation is literally smoldering and burning up that Yin. And so then when you don't have enough of that Yin, you get hot flashes, night sweats, sometimes headaches, sometimes dizziness, you can feel like hot in your hands or your feet in this weird way. There's lots of different signs. You can have like darker colored pea constipation.

Kathleen Shannon 42:42
Okay, here's another question. And on the topic of Gretchen Rubin, we need to probably have her on the show. But one of the things that she talks about is abstaining versus moderating and like some people are better at abstaining, and some people are better at moderation. So there's one camp of people, if you're best at moderation, if you told those people, you can't have anything for 30 days, they might go completely the opposite way. And they might be really good with moderation. Like if they can just have one square of dark chocolate a day. They're good with everything else, versus Abstainers who are like, probably people with speaking for myself, probably people with more addictive personalities are kind of all or nothing. Right. And so this is, I think, where you see a lot of people who go from drug addictions to almost like they become like the most badass crossfitters ever, because they're kind of trading one addiction for another. So I kind of think of that in the abstainer camp. So I'm curious with you guys. I'm curious to hear what you all are you guys Abstainers or moderators? Oh, I'm

Amy Kuretsky 43:48
an abstainer. Let me just tell you that the very first time I did a 21 day sugar detox, I, I fell off the wagon day like 15 or something like that. It was pretty far and but I fell off the wagon and I ate an entire box of cookie. It's like it wasn't just one cookie. It was the whole box of cookies. But then I also felt like totally sick afterwards. And I was like, Okay, well, that reminds me why I'm never gonna do this again.

Emily Thompson 44:15
What about you? And that's David. That is absolutely David wholeheartedly. I think I'm a moderator. I think I'm pretty good with like, I can just go in there and have one piece of chocolate and be good to go or like, actually, David, again, like he will eat he's a fantastic metabolism that makes me sick.

Kathleen Shannon 44:37
Just reminder for our listeners. David is Emily's partner in crime baby daddy baby daddy and he's also our being boss. CFO manager, CFO business manager.

Emily Thompson 44:49
Yep. So he he will go through pints of Earth gallons of ice cream like it is no bodies business. It is like his soul food through went through. And David's mom once asked me, she was like, you know, how do you deal with David eating all that ice cream, and I'm like, he gives me one bite, Just one bite,

Unknown Speaker 45:11
and then you're good with that. And then I'm,

Emily Thompson 45:13
like, Just give me one bite of ice cream. And I'm good to go.

Amy Kuretsky 45:17
So here's something interesting from a Chinese medicine perspective, if you want to get nerdy for a minute, okay, so when I was a kid, I was a moderator, or Yeah, whatever that term is. So my mom has told me stories that like she thought it was so weird that I could just eat a little bit of ice cream and not finish it or just eat like a cookie and not the whole box, I was completely able to moderate what I had, especially with sugar, I did not have a sweet tooth. And then after I was got sick and was diagnosed with Crohn's disease, I had the biggest Sweet Tooth ever. And in Chinese medicine, the sweet taste corresponds to the earth element, which has to do with your digestive system. And so when my digestive system was so damaged, that it just craved that sweetness, because a small amounts of sweetness tonify, the digestive system, whereas large amounts of sweetness are. It's, it's poor and bad for it. But so I never had a sweet tooth until my digestive system just went crazy. And so for a couple years after I was diagnosed, I would say between the ages of like 21, and like 28, even like when I really kind of made this correlation and was in acupuncture school, and I was like, Oh, this all makes sense. I had this crazy, sweet tooth. And now because my digestive system is so healed, and I'm doing so much better. And I've also worked hard through doing the 21 day sugar detox and doing my own kind of like soul work about this. I still have a little bit of a sweet tooth, but it's nothing like that. That's crazy, I

Emily Thompson 46:49
think I think I used to be like, as a kid was probably an abstainer. Like, if you if ever got a hold of something good. It was going down. But as I've grown grown older, I think I've shifted, shifted as well. Lily is also like, bad as moderator like she's one of those kids like you can give her a thing of ice cream, and she'll have three bites and be done. Or like, we'll be watching TV even and like halfway through a show I'm sleepy and go into bed and we're like, oh, you're missing the end date. Like she's so good about just like cutting it off and being done when she's done. It's admirable.

Unknown Speaker 47:27
That's awesome.

Kathleen Shannon 47:27
I used to think that well, I wasn't abstainer for a long time. And so I was either all or nothing.

Amy Kuretsky 47:35
But do you think that like you can be a moderator on some things and abstain on other things like I think for sugar, I'm on abstain or now like I have to just be all or nothing. But when I go out to the bars with friends, my friends think it's funny that I can have like one drink. And then I'm like, Oh, I'm done. I don't need another one. Whereas they want to have like three or four. Or there's other things like I am really good at moderating some things. But sugar is the one thing that I'm I'm an abstainer for.

Emily Thompson 47:59
That's why if you put a bag of Cheetos in front of me, I'm pretty much gonna eat them all.

Kathleen Shannon 48:05
That's such a good question. I think that in general, or I used to really identify with being an abstainer, I was very much all or nothing. And that comes to good habits and bad habit. So let's say I'm a nail biter. I'm biting my nails every day, right? But if I'm working out, I'm also working out every day. And what I found recently is I've been holding myself to my abstainer standards, because that's what I was so used to. But things have shifted, and I think it shifted after I had a baby. And Amy, it would be interesting to hear if you have any insights on that from like, even a Chinese medicine perspective, because now I'm so much better with moderation. So like I said, three days into the 21 day sugar detox, I had a bar of chocolate. And I think previously with my abstainer mindset, I would have just kept going. And I did keep going a little bit. But I hopped back on the wagon, the very next day, by eating really well and being really conscious of what I'm doing. And so maybe I am that person, I mentioned that I went through that kind of bargaining phase like okay, but what if I just have one or two squares of chocolate a day and do everything else buy the book. Actually, maybe that would work best for me, because maybe I am a moderator now.

Amy Kuretsky 49:19
And that's something that you can I mean, if you choose to go that route, that's something you can do. But you have to make the conscious choice to do it. It's like if you're going to commit to a 21 day sugar detox, then just commit to it and do the whole thing. And then afterwards, you can be like, Okay, well now I'm going to try this thing where I only have one piece of dark chocolate and like that's my thing, and then do that for like 21 days and see which one you like better. But I generally think it's a good idea to choose one, do it to the max the whole time, and then take that data from it because otherwise, it's like when when a patient comes to me and they're like, Okay, well I'm on this thing and I'm taking this supplement and this supplement this and like I'm feeling better now, but I have no idea which one of these things is making me feel better? And it's like okay, well yeah, you need to like just she was wanting to go with it

Kathleen Shannon 50:01
so it is like science where you need to have a control experiment you need to know your baseline yeah and you need to just introduce or take out one variable at a time perhaps

Amy Kuretsky 50:13
i mean especially when you're doing something let's say like the aip which is the autoimmune paleo diet so it's a very very strict paleo diet and this is specifically for people with autoimmune diseases who has not been managed with other diets or medicines or whatnot with that diet you at some point you can choose if you want to bring some of these foods back in and it's like night shades eggs just some of the really typical like trigger foods for people and the best way to do that is to just choose one single food and then you eat it for breakfast lunch dinner and then breakfast the next day and then you wait like i think it's like 36 hours or something and you track to see what symptoms come up and if no symptoms come up then like okay and then you add in one more food and you do that same thing so it's really about that control and really choosing the variable that you want to find out about

Kathleen Shannon 51:10
okay i have another question you had mentioned whenever we're talking about let's see whether you're never seen or moderator you said that you've done some soul work around your cravings or things that make you not feel so good can you share a little bit more about that like because i think most people think of food just kind of being a physical thing but i think that there is you know a mental component but then even deeper than that a soul component so i'd love to hear more about that if you don't mind sharing

Amy Kuretsky 51:42
yeah so um like one of the worksheets that i have people do that i shared with the group is about conquering your cravings and it's basically like a journaling prompt and you're supposed to bring yourself back to a time that you remember of the last craving or indiscretion and you kind of go through the whole event of like okay what happened right before that like was i arguing with my partner or was i sad about something or you know you kind of go through and then you also there's physical questions like was my blood sugar low when was the last time i ate what did i eat last and then there's environmental like who is i with are there certain people that are triggering me but then you can get through that to get an idea as to what your triggers are but then you can go even further and take that and journal about that whole mixture of ingredients and how that influences you the way some people like to do that through journaling and just that sort of like mourning pages where you just like write without trying to make real sentences or anything you just write and write and write another way to do that is through eft which is emotional freedom technique also called tapping where there are certain acute puncture points or acupressure points that you're stimulating with your fingers and that are on your head and shoulders and then you have this phrase and we can go more into this later in the clubhouse

Unknown Speaker 53:12
on your blog

Unknown Speaker 53:13
i have not

Kathleen Shannon 53:14
no i will periscope video and put it on the blog and then we'll link to it in our show

Unknown Speaker 53:17
notes okay that sounds good oh

Unknown Speaker 53:20
more homework i'll put it in your condo okay

Kathleen Shannon 53:26
i like actually writing it down i wrote down

Amy Kuretsky 53:29
one of the things about eft like there's a couple of different ways to do it one traditional way is where there's like one specific saying that you have it's like even though i have having the sugar craving i fully and completely love and accept myself and you would just repeat that as you go through the whole system but the way i like to do it better is that almost like peeling back the layers of an onion so the first round would be like even though i'm having this sugar craving i thoroughly and completely love and accept myself even though this sugar craving is making me feel crazy i thoroughly love and complete myself even though this feeling crazy i feel it in my heart you know you can you just bring it through these layers and you just free flow it there's no right or wrong way to do it but you i've done it before with money blocks like when i was first starting my business and i this is years ago when i was just doing acupuncture i wasn't doing health coaching and i really felt like i needed to increase my prices but i was really scared about doing it and i did eft to be like why am i so afraid to raise my prices and that was the trigger that was the thing that made me realize like just because i have this punk rock mentality of being very diy and and you know $5 shows and everything like that from being a teenager and even in college that doesn't if i raise my prices that doesn't change who i am as a person i can still be there's a lot of things that i can do That I have that punk rock energy behind it. But I can do them better if I have money to make a living like I can put my money towards the causes that I really care about, instead of being too poor and having to shop at like Target, like I can have the money to go to a local CSI farmer. And so it's like, these are the punk rock ideals that I really believe in is like, you know, and so I use EFT to get there is basically the short version of the story. That could be like a whole other podcast episode I

Kathleen Shannon 55:35
first learned about EFT from golla. Darlene, you guys follow her?

Amy Kuretsky 55:39
That's how I first heard about it, too.

Kathleen Shannon 55:41
Oh, really? Yes, she did a video on it. So maybe we'll link to golla. darlings, yeah, you're on EFT because I tried it. And I knew that she cured her eating disorder with it. Yeah, I don't. So it's pretty powerful. And okay, so one time, I don't get a lot of acupuncture, but I do go to a chiropractor. And she had never busted out the womb, you guys like she would just crack my back. And we call it a day. And one day, and what I didn't realize is that she was doing muscle testing on me at the same time, I just didn't really know what it was, which is basically where she would put certain points. She put her hands on certain points in my body. And then she would pull my hand away from my body, she would tell me to like hold my hand to my body as tight as possible. And Amy probably speak to this a little bit more, I'm probably not doing it service. But basically, here's my experiences that one day I was really weak whenever she was touching on certain points. And she goes, What is going into your mind go what is going on in your mind about your reproductive system. And I was like, immediately started bawling. And I was like, I don't think I want to have another baby like something along those lines. And right there she started doing EFT on me, like so. And so this is just to say that someone who is very just pretty practical in and out never woowoo never weird. Busted this out. And it worked. So if it sounds weird to you all just look into it have an open mind, because I don't know, there's probably some science behind it somewhere.

Amy Kuretsky 57:13
And I think that it's, you know, part of it is the acupressure points and that movement of energy. But part of it is just getting your thoughts out of your head. I mean, whether it's writing morning pages, or it's talking to yourself in the shower, or whatever it is that you're doing, just get those thoughts out of your head because they are just going to drive you crazy. Hey, man.

Kathleen Shannon 57:34
Um, Amy, tell us where can our listeners find out more about you?

Amy Kuretsky 57:39
So my website is Amy curette. Ski calm. It's a MYK you are@sky.com with some lovely branding from braid.

Unknown Speaker 57:50
Yeah.

Amy Kuretsky 57:50
And I'm also on Periscope, a fair amount and on Instagram every day. So those are the best places to find me.

Kathleen Shannon 57:56
Your periscopes are my favorite. Like I really want to urge people to get on your periscopes because you share so much knowledge you were so generous and open with it. Thank you. That is like I think, Emily and I think that is the most badass thing whenever you can really give away your gifts of knowledge and make money.

Emily Thompson 58:15
Yes.

Kathleen Shannon 58:18
All right, you guys. So guess what, me, Emily, Paul and Jason have decided to join forces on June 22 to offer a masterclass on podcasting for your business. So we've decided to join forces to bring you the best most actionable and no bullshit podcasting masterclass for business owners. The four of us together have had for successful podcast, we've generated over $350,000 in revenue, and we've had over 1.5 million episode downloads. So we maybe know a thing or two about podcasting and we want to teach you how to do it too. We have invested the time and money to figure out what works and what doesn't. And we want to bring you the best three hours you'll ever spend learning about podcasting. And since it's the four of us, we hope it's a little bit fun to you. Our goal is to make sure that you come out of this masterclass with a plan to go from podcast idea to publish show that will help your business. We're going to be talking about branding and positioning your podcast, we're going to be talking about creating content, tech, audio systems, automation, launching and marketing your podcast, growing and building fans and then finally monetizing and maybe even having sponsors. This masterclass is not about teaching you a few well worn tips for podcasting. It's about helping guide you through launching a podcast that helps and drives your business forward. We've built some really amazing communities and we've made some good money from our podcasts. But most importantly, we've figured out how to create podcasts that are unique to our own personalities, styles and Brands all right if you're interested in joining us for this online masterclass on June 22, just go to podcasts LIKE A BOSS calm, learn more and sign up there. Again, it's podcasts LIKE A BOSS calm. We hope to see you there. Thank you for listening to being boss. Please be sure to visit our website at being boss club where you can find Show Notes for this episode, listen to past episodes and discover more of our content that will help you be boss in work and life. Did you like this episode, please share it with a friend and show some love by leaving a rating and review

Emily Thompson 1:00:34
on iTunes. And if you're looking for a community of bosses to help take your creative business to the next level. Be sure to check out our exclusive community at being boss clubs slash clubhouse where you get access to our closed and very vibrant slack group monthly q&a calls with Kathleen and myself a book club and more. cultivate your tribe and find your Wolf Pack at being boss club slash clubhouse. Do the work be boss and we'll see you next week.

Amy Kuretsky 1:01:09
Right I think this is the first podcast that I've done that people actually edit afterwards like this is my fourth podcast and the rest of them I think they just like you know start finish done.

Kathleen Shannon 1:01:21
No like don't say anything racist because this is going live. Like that's my biggest fear is that like I would say something that I would never say like called Tourette's? Yeah, totally. Like if it was live I'm like awesome, like, motherfucker. Oh man,

Emily Thompson 1:01:50
that would be so great.

Amy Kuretsky 1:01:51
you wearing that hat and like having that like

Emily Thompson 1:01:55
right kind of perfect

Kathleen Shannon 1:01:56
six inch heels walked in the club like no, but he's been Korea's gonna have too much to work with after this for like the outtake